Thursday, September 09, 2021
Every two years in future?
UEFA boss Ceferin threatens to boycott the World Cup
It should be clear by Christmas whether the World Cup will take place every two years in the future. A group of experts around Lothar Matthäus and Jürgen Klinsmann is clearly in favor of a two-year cycle on the excitement issue. That upsets UEFA President Aleksander Čeferin.
UEFA President Aleksander Čeferin is threatening to boycott the World Cup if the tournament is actually held every two years. “We can decide not to participate,” said the head of the European Football Union (UEFA) in an interview with the British Times, which was conducted on Wednesday and published today, Thursday. “As far as I know, the South Americans are going too – good luck with a World Cup like this. I think that will never happen because it is so against the fundamental principles of football.”
FIFA Director Arsène Wenger said at a press conference that his Technical Advisory Group would officially propose hosting the World Cup every two years. According to the proposal, the changes should finally take effect after the 2026 World Cup in the USA, Canada and Mexico with 48 nations for the first time. The tournaments of the confederations would then be held in 2027, including the European Championship. In the previously planned EM year 2028, the next World Cup would then be due again.
In addition to Lothar Matthäus, Jürgen Klinsmann and Sami Khedira, numerous international stars such as Ronaldo, Marco van Basten, Youri Djorkaeff, Michael Owen and Peter Schmeichel belonged to the top-class committee that had gathered in Doha. The football greats were supposed to promote the highly controversial idea of FIFA – and they did it as requested. All the stars who had their say spoke out in favor of the reform, which, according to Wenger, is to be decided by a FIFA Congress. “The current model comes from a long time ago. It is high time to renew it,” said Ronaldo: “A World Cup is always great. We want more of it. The fans want more show.” Schmeichel agreed with Ronaldo: “Everyone agreed: the game plan is out of date.”
FIFA President Gianni Infantino had previously announced that he wanted to clarify the World Cup issue by Christmas. “This consultation process will be very comprehensive and we hope to complete it by the end of the year,” said Infantino. “The current international calendar ends in 2024, so we have to make decisions by the end of the year.”
“The value lies precisely in the fact that the World Cup takes place every four years,” said UEFA boss Čeferin. “You wait for that, it’s like the Olympics – a huge event. I don’t see our confederation supporting it. I hope FIFA will regain its senses.” The proposal would “kill football”.
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